Friday, February 8, 2013

We here at FMLA are participating in this year's Book Blogger Fair, featuring some of the best up and coming novelists and featuring books of all genres. Today, we take a look at the world described in After the Fear by Rosanne Rivers

Title: Thinking of visiting the UK in year 2101?

Where to visit from: After the Fear

So, you’re thinking of visiting the UK in year 2101? Well, as you have probably heard, the Shepherds’ country is a vibrant place full of culture, criminals and the ancestors of those laden with Debt. But the best thing about this unusual place has to be the murderous Demonstrations.

Of course, no one from outside the country is allowed into the cities, but I managed to sneak over a few borders, including a visit to the mythological ‘training camp’, also known as city Zulu.

City Juliet

Most famous for its production of not one, but two famous Demonstrators (including that Demonstration!), city Juliet is situated in the middle of this small country. Watch out for a large beehive-esque building which used to harbour hundreds of tiny shops. Thought to be where the Debt began years ago, this has now been converted into an office complex dedicated to regulating Debtbook. It resembles a rather large blue blob covered with tiny silver dots.

Stadium: What used to be a rather sad stone affair has bloomed into an arena equipped with audience heaters, fixed floodlights, surround sound speakers and instant recognition of your scan chip (meaning you don’t have to scan in!) as well as handheld devices which enable you to vote for who you believe will die first.

Highlight- Juliet October Tryouts in 2102. If the last tryout was anything to go by, this is a must-watch!!

City Alpha

By far the biggest of the cities, Alpha is rife with rumours that this was once the capital of England, also known as London. The people here are generally considered affluent (what a joke) as they have paid off most of their Debt. Watch out for The Alpha Eye: a strange circular contraption which stretches high into the sky. It has translucent pods which rotate, showing the person inside the whole city.

Highlight: The Stadium, of course. Twice as wide as any other city’s Stadium, with lights snaking around each pillar and usually containing twice the amount of contestants battling it out!

City Zulu (the training camp)

If I thought the other cities were hard to get out of, I was a fool after seeing this. Surrounded by a gate which only opens on the instruction of the Shepherds, my initial reaction to this place was that it was a cold, desolate world. However, despite the morbid reason for the camp (so those chosen to pay the Debt can train to kill as many criminals as possible before their tour ends, or worse, they are killed), once I was inside, I saw a different story.

The Demonstrators forge friendships, and even relationship with one another. They seem to support each others’ fights by watching/cheering them on via a large digiscreen. The resident Shepherd, Shepherd Fines, is a rather young chap who delights in socialising with the teenage Demonstrators. How they feel about him, however, I am not sure of.

The camp is mainly made up of fields, gyms and pod dormitories. Shepherd Fines is known to throw parties for his Demonstrators, who he seems to treat as beloved pets. There is a general downcast feeling to the camp if one of the Demonstrators dies during their Demonstration, but as is the nature of the game, the others must learn to live with it and continue to train. They know that otherwise, it may be them next.

Although brutal, this camp is my favourite place so far. Now, I just need to find a way of getting out...

After the Fear

You have not attended a Demonstration this month.

In Sola’s city, everyone obeys the rules. Stay away from the trigger cameras and regularly update your Debtbook, and you just might survive. But having to watch the way criminals are dealt with—murdered by Demonstrators in the Stadium—is a law Sola tries to avoid. When a charming Demonstrator kisses her at a party, however, she’s thrust into the Stadium and forced into the very role she despises.

Armed with only natural resourcefulness and a caring nature, Sola narrowly survives her first bout. Her small success means she’s whisked off to a training camp, where she discovers a world beyond the trigger cameras and monitoring—a world where falling in love with a killer doesn’t seem so terrible.

Yet life as a Demonstrator has no peace. Sola must train her way through twenty-five more Demonstrations before she can return home to her father. At the end of each battle, only one survivor remains.

Rosanne Rivers

Rosanne lives in Birmingham, UK and considers it one of her favourite cities, second only to Rome. She delights in writing for children and young adults and hopes to bring readers to an unfamiliar yet alluring setting. Rosanne was inspired to write when she read the Harry Potter books, and at age fourteen, she wrote romance fanfiction on just about every pairing you could dream up from the HP series. She currently lives with her partner and two bunny rabbits and is working on a post-apocalyptic adventure book for middle grade readers.

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